flashplugin-nonfree broken

Christopher Biessener christopherpb at voomtech.com
Thu May 13 18:10:29 UTC 2010


On 05/13/2010 12:37 PM, Janne Jokitalo wrote:
> On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 12:27:39PM -0500, Christopher Biessener wrote:
>> On 05/13/2010 11:29 AM, Janne Jokitalo wrote:
>>> On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 11:12:43AM -0500, Christopher Biessener wrote:
>>>> $ apt-get install --reinstall flashplugin-nonfree
>>> <snip>
>>>> dpkg: error processing flashplugin-nonfree (--remove):
>>>>     Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
>>>>     reinstall it before attempting a removal.
>>>> Errors were encountered while processing:
>>>>     flashplugin-nonfree
>>>> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
>>>
>>> Please, don't top-post. I'm tired of re-organizing the posts, so I deleted the
>>> earlier discussion, which is always a loss for someone who reads in midst of
>>> thread.
>>>
>>> Okay, so that didn't work. Try:
>>>
>>> $ sudo dpkg -r --force-remove-reinstreq flashplugin-nonfree
>> $ dpkg -r --force-remove-reinstreq flashplugin-nonfree
>> dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
>>    Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should
>>    reinstall it before attempting a removal.
>> (Reading database ... 338350 files and directories currently installed.)
>> Removing flashplugin-nonfree ...
>> update-alternatives: error: no alternatives for iceape-flashplugin.
>> update-alternatives: error: no alternatives for iceape-flashplugin.
>> dpkg: error processing flashplugin-nonfree (--remove):
>>    subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
>> postinst called with argument `abort-remove'
>> dpkg: error while cleaning up:
>>    subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
>> Errors were encountered while processing:
>>    flashplugin-nonfree
>
> Uh oh, sneaky little thing.
>
>> Is there a way to edit the package list and remove the
>> flashplugin-nonfree entry?
>
> Well, I believe that's the final resort, unless someone else comes up with a
> better idea. You can find it in /var/lib/dpkg/status, but please PLEASE back it
> up first. :)
>
>> I've also tried 'apt-get -m install dselect' because the manpage for
>> apt-get -f recommends using dselect...   The -m flag did not work either.
>
> I'm not sure any front-end to dpkg resolves this for you. It's up to dpkg, but
> sometimes even it becomes confused. If adding "--force-all" to the
> above-mentioned dpkg command doesn't do the trick, then I would edit the package
> list by hand. Good luck!
Editing /var/lib/dpkg/status has cleared my problem.  Before I made the 
edit I looked at the installed files list.  It didn't have anything but 
its directories, so it was safe.

-Christopher






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